The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-10-11
MR.. BLAINE ABROAD.
Murat HaIstead corrects Some False
Impressions.
The Trip to Homburg for Mrs.
Blaine's Benefit.
Mrs. John BigeIow's Statement and
What HaIstead Says Of II.


What HaIstead Says of IL.
CINCINNATI, Oct. 10.-In the Sunday
Commercial Gazette yesterday, Murat Hal
stead printed the following regarding the
abuse Of Mr.. Blaine in the foreign dispatches
of the Chicago News:
'These dispatches are from young man
who has pursued Mr.. Blaine around Europe
and has supplied TIE Chicago News with a
constant stream Of cheap gossip and the sub
stitution Of fancies for facts. The produc-
tion was intended to supply the demand ex-
isting in the Office Of The News, a journal
that has tapered off from the worship of
Conkling and Arthur to the alteration Of
Cleveland, and still seems to think that the
ocean current of the Republican party
should be turned into brook with a chan
mel suited to the convenience of the Mug
wump flutter-wheels that turn and turn and
never grind.
'The able correspondent Of the esteemed
contemporary does me the honor to refer
to reporters about Mr.. Blaine in Europe,
and propose to say something under that
head In my own way and words. An alleged
statement made at an Opera House by Mrs.
in heavy headlines that Mr.. Blaine is going
for the Presidency. Ladies, as politicians,
it is not too much or too little to say, are not
the most reliable of reporters. Mrs. Bige-
low Is vivaciOus enthusiast, who would
like to see Mr.. Blaine run again for the
Presidency, because the canvass would in
form possess dramatic interest As Mr.
Blaine has not announced decision as to
the candidacy for the Presidency to his most
intimate friends who have been long asso-
QiafQ0 with him N n01iffaol apfo
personal ambition, it is not likely that he
would make the first communication of a
new departure and critical determination to
lady, the wife Of a gentleman who has
never been one of his supporters and who
has not been Republican since he was
Minister to France.
But if Mrs. Bigelow is to be credited with
the primary information touching Mr..
Blaine's purposes, why Is she not believed
when she says, she is in splendid health |?
Cannot the News accept its own authority
1t has been the point of the correspondent
of that paper, during the whole time that he
has been bounding Mr.. Blaine in Europe,
that his state of health was something pitt
ful, and so far has assertion been carried as
to include insinuati0ns that his mind was en-
feebled.
II know nothing about Mr.. Cowan's rela-
tions with Mr.. Carnegie, or whether he
sneaked around back doors and interviewed
servants, but he has certainly been engaged
lal, especially If it was a part of his EN-
ployment to relate the things he did not
know and TO color them with a tint of un-
kindness that might readily be mistaken for
malice. 1t has not seemed to me nice land
say 1t simply in my capacity as an American
citizen TO be pursuing Mr.. Blaine up and
down the British Islands and across the
continent OF Europe, telegraphing about
him that which was disagreeable, and the
meanness of the business mas been only
sliOhtiv Oaodi6ad hy tho faa hot tho
pleasant things said are untrue.
Suppose the stories of Mr.. Blaine's fail
ing health, his tottering steps, his terrors
about himself, his faltering mind. were
true stories, would It not be terrible to
hunt him in the resorts where he hoped for
restoration of health, and proclaim to the
world his miserable weakness. As Mr..
Blaine is well and strong enough to look
upon the literature with which his enemies
advertise him, contemptuously, and even to
be amused occasionally at something that is
unusually preposterOus, there Is a slight
ameli0ratiOn of the offence committed. IL Is
hard case where the Justification is the only
possible plea of mitigation. l did not have
an arrangement to. see Mr.. Blaine abroad,
and when arrived in London he was in
Scotland. After his visit to Ireland l saw
him and he was looking better than at any
time since 1876. He was strong and alert,
brown from the sun, with tinge of color in
his cheeks that he had not had in ten years.
His eyes were bright and swapping and his
lips red, and his conversation had extraor-
dinary vivacity. He seemed, as always, to
know everything: and exact dates and quo
tatiOns and recollecti0ns surprising for de-
tails, depending upon absolute accuracy,
were poured forth with that glitter of verbal
Felicity and dash that is so fascinating Ii
chanced that an old schoolmate, one of the
friends ot Blalne's boyhood. came in at the
time, and "reminiscences were in order and
the thoroughness with which Blaine knew
what was going on fifty years ago. and he is
but hfty-seven years of age, seemed almost
miraculous. That is the way his feebleness
shows itself.
'Mr. Blaine's enemies were very anxious
he should go to Ireland and take the stump
against the British crown, and they have not
forgiven him for not doing it. When he had
been nearly month in Scotland they con-
cluded that he did not dare to 60 to Ireland
at all. They had just announced his alarms
that would prevent his feet from pressing
Irish soil, when, 10, he was in Ireland having
a good time, and then, when they were sure
he could not keep out Of a scrape there, he
returned to Europe, declining, as he did
everywhere, public demonstrations. He Wis
tied Ireland and left the island according
to his convenience. Desiring to reach a
watering place on the Continent before the
close of the season, he had fingered so long
in Scotland that his time was limited. There
was dinner in London at which Mr.. Blaine
met Mr.. Depew and the writer of this, and
there was not total absence Of politics at
the table, but there were other things more
agreeable, ii less exciting. 1t may seem
curious to those who have not made runs
through Europe that Blaine, Depew and the
undersigned met in Hamburg ten days later
without the slightest arrangement to do so,
and there they talked the whole country (our
country over again. Everything that was
said might be reported verbatim without
settling or unsettling the state of the nation.
1t is charged that Mr.. Blaine confessed
himself an invalid by going to Homburg and
taking the cure That is no answer. Mr..
Depew, Mr. Garrett Mr.. Wannemaker,
Senator Hale and myself are not invalids,
and we got up at $50 a. m. and walked a
mile before q. m, once or twice in a cold
fog, to drink salt water, and did it wearing
buttonhole bouquets and carrying sticks,
failing strength. The fashion that Blaine
refused to adopt at Homburg was carrying a
cane. He walked, and talked, and drank
water according to directions. 1t is the
fashion to do so. Fashion commands you to
i've abstemiously, early to bed and early to
Of the salt water, and Mr.. Blaine had moth
ing TO do but to do as the others did. He
had lost his Chicago friend and did not
mourn over him, and when after two weeks
the young man turned up, there was no sur
prise or concern. But the first budget by
cable for Chicago told that the physicians
had sent Blaine to spring seldom used be-
cause he had something the matter with
him; so deplorable that he could not take
the ordinary water.
This is specification; so let us examine
it. First-Mr Blaine did not go to Homburg
on his own account. Unfortunately there is
some foundation for the reports that Mrs
Blaine is not in firm health. The medical
advice that took the Blaines to Homburg was
for the benefit Of Mrs. Blaine. Mr.. Blaine,
being there, took the cure as a matter of
amusement and occupation and lie took his
three glasses of water every morning at the
Elizabeth Springs, just as others did. That
was the spring where the band played at a.
M, and the overture was charming. and the
walks under the chestnut trees are perfect
Then Mr.. Blaine took mis- bath of pine leaves
and came out with the aroma Of the pines OF
the classical Taunus Mountains. In the af-
ternoon the crowd drinks at the Ludwig
Spring two glasses each, and Mr.. Blaine with
a few others drank at the Louise Spring, 30
yards distant, and the only difference in the
water is that there is a small fraction more
iron in the Louise than in the Ludwig water
1t does not make particle of difference
which spring one drinks from.
PEACE BETWEEN NATIONS.
Cleveland Told Or. Jones to Co